Having seen some community builds mostly over at eurobricks, I thought I'd ask here if there's interest in doing something similar here? A community build is, for the uninformed, a collection of MOCs on a theme, all may participate and there's no other aim then to build, show offf and have fun. I haven't been building for a while and I thought this would give me some motivation, hopefully to the rest of you too.

The setting is this: Point Central (name shamelessly stolen from Valerians dito) is the name of a huge space station where all empires and factions who wish so have a diplomatic mission. Think Babylon 5 of the series with the same name, Point Central from Valerian or The Citadel from Mass Effect (1&2). Our Point Central begun as a DSM mining station. During the DSM civil war a great cruiser stranded here and the hulk plus the facilities became a hideout for space pirates, who towed captured ships there adding to the livable space. As the station grew, there was need of diplomacy between factions, traders bought protection from piracy and set up shop buying and selling goods. During wartime Point Central became a place for quiet negotiations and shady deals with pirates, and during peace the factions never really left because it was convenient with a neutral area for diplomatic work, more factions added their diplomatic missions and so on for many many revolutions.

Any faction that so wishes can add a diplomatic mission/embassy by just building an add-on to the existing structures. There are some places that are governed by the community as a whole and quarters abandoned by lost empires are settled by squatters or just turned into markets open for all but otherwise all livable space is built and owned by factions. The most important place is the Great hall, where the ambassadors from all factions meet and discuss openly. Shadowy negotiations can be held in the factions own quarters, and there's dealings in the common market.

I propose a community build in three steps making a shared space station.1: Build your factions part of the great hall. It's a 16x16 stud area facing the great hall, like boxes at the opera. The build should have one "open" wall facing the great hall and one wall with a door (so your ambassador can leave your box without mixing with unwanted elements), but the rest is free for interpretation. Be creative. Atleast one picture of this box should be posted here along with a picture of the ambassador for that faction (you may enter more then one faction, if you like). For the sake of the thread, keep deeplinked images at 640x480 or smaller. The idea is to do these builds one at a time, i.e we build the great hall box first and wait for all (most) participants to finish (give it... 3-4 weeks?) and then we begin step 2 etc.

2: A picture of the main negotiation-room in your embassy with a shady deal going down. Any size.3: Name one prime tradegoods your faction trades at Point Central and build a small scene where this good is bartered in the market. Any size.

Step 2 and 3 just mentioned here as ideas. So, anyone interested in building?If I get 5 interested including me we'll get this thing rolling and anyone else can join whenever. This could be a huge spacestation

There's no set limit here, you can build them how you like. The specifications are not very limiting and this is so that you can build what you think looks best.

Colette wrote:But if there's too many nations it'll end up like this:

Thats more or less how I envisioned it It's so that there's no need to have lots of minifigs to make a scene from a common great hall, you just need your ambassador (you can add any staff you want to have at hand) and then you build your own box.

Colette wrote:We should also vote for a secretary-general of this whole business. To counter the Third Alliance's Grand Uberkaiser or whatever.

This build is not political in itself, it's just for making MOC's to share with eachother, but feel free to start negotiations with other builders. Factions from other alliances are also welcome to build an embassy if they feel the need for a low profile one that can handle delicate matters.

I'll start out and see if anyone follows The Halcyon Empire is a recent addition to Point Central, but still has a good view of the speakers chair of the Great Hall due to it's multidimensional nature. Here's a picture of the ambassador Lord Karsh listening to a speach, sipping well aged whiskey and reading some reports between debaters. One wall of the box has strategically been left out just to provide a better view.

Two guards flank the Ambassador and will later escort him back to the Halcyon part of Point Central, a journey not entierly without danger even though the station still is neutral ground (gentlemens agreement, but then again..).

Oh I wondered where that relations-thing went... this is not in itself a relations-thread even though it's in the guise of a diplomatic station - I come to the forums to browse the armory etc and check out others MOCs, this thread is so that we can build together. If this sparks more interacting and relations among the empires, great, but I think those threads are hard to keep alive if there isn't regular games etc that affect them, as interest in talk-only-alliances fades. Maybe this... non-violent building is not for proper brickwarriors, but I want to see if it can attract some MOCs that I (and others) can log on and watch when work gets boring.